Battle of Hamburger Hill

The Battle of Hamburger Hill was a major battle of the Vietnam War which was fought from 10 to 20 May 1969.

April 1969 marked the highpoint of American commitment to the war in Vietnam; 543,482 men and women were in country, while tens of thousands more were stationed at airbases and on ships beyond its borders. 40,794 Americans had been killed in action up to that point, and more than $70 billion had been spent. In the spring, a new battle caught the attention of the American public when US airborne troops and ARVN struggled to take Hill 937, a strategic hill near the Laotian border. They were repulsed ten times, and it was nicknamed "Hamburger Hill", as the Americans were said to have been chewed up like a hamburger. The Airborne ultimately took the hill after 11 days of direct assaults, having lost 56 US dead, 420 wounded, and 7 MIA. A week later, the Americans abandoned the hill despite the great cost at which it was taken. General John M. Wright said that the hill was not important to US strategy, justifying the withdrawal; US Senator Ted Kennedy called on President Richard Nixon to stop wasting American lives on taking useless hills.